STATEMENT BY THE LEADER OF THE POLITICAL OPPOSITION PARTIES DELEGATION AT THE 5TH SESSION PHASE II OF IGAD-LED TALKS
STATEMENT BY THE LEADER OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES DELEGATION, DR LAM AKOL, AT THE LAUNCHING OF THE 5TH SESSION PHASE II OF IGAD STAKEHOLDER ROUNDTABLE PEACE TALKS, ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA, 4TH AUGUST 2014.
Your Excellencies the IGAD Special Envoys,
All the delegations here present
Good afternoon.
On behalf of the political parties, I extend our thanks and appreciation to the IGAD, AU, UN, Troika, EU and China for remaining seized of the situation in South Sudan. Special gratitude go to the IGAD mediators who selflessly devoted their time, energy and resources in order to bring sustainable peace to our country.
As we resume the 5th session of phase II of the talks, it is our sincere hope that all parties will come prepared to use the remaining of the 60 days specified by IGAD leaders to conclude a peace agreement for sustainable peace in South Sudan. We, the Political Parties, are well prepared and we believe that this deadline could be met if all stakeholders, specially the two warring parties, have the political will to do so.
It is unfortunate that the 31 days that passed since the adjournment of the last session saw renewed armed hostilities on the ground causing more loss of lives, increased displacements and heightened level of vulnerability of our population to man-made famine.
The warring parties must respect the agreements they have signed and stop fighting so as to give peace a chance. The warring parties must understand that none of them will score a military-victory. They must internalize the fact that negotiation is the only route to peace. We also appeal to IGAD and UNMISS to expedite the deployment of the Protection Force to provide security for our hapeless civil population.
When we say thar this war is destructive we mean it. It has caused extreme destruction to innocent lives, destruction of properties, destruction of social fabric and untold damage to the image of South Sudan among nations. A country born with a lot of promise and euphoria three years ago now tops the fragile states of the world. We should be ashamed of ourselves as South Sudan elites to be part, by commission or omission, of this destruction of a promise for which millions of our compatriots have selflessly sacrificed for decades. War must stop now and it is the duty and moral obligation of all of us in this hall to stop the war by working out a sustainable peace agreement.
We will be remiss if we do not condemn in the strongest terms possible the attempt on the life of the leader of CSOs delegation to these talks, Mr. Deng Athuai, and we call for a speedy investigation so that the culprits are brought to book. We are for peaceful dialogue, not for settling scores by arms.
Once more we thank IGAD and friends of South Sudan who sprang to our support at the time of need. We are grateful to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia which is hosting these talks. We wish all of us fruitful deliberations so that this round of talks is decisive in the peace talks.
We wish you fruitful deliberations and hope that this session will be decisive in the peace process.
Thank you.
Dr. Lam Akol
Leader of the Political Parties’ Delegation.
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